


Like A Fading Dream

by FriendLey



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: AU, F/M, Pepperony - Freeform, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-20
Updated: 2018-08-20
Packaged: 2019-06-29 22:11:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15738330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FriendLey/pseuds/FriendLey
Summary: Morgan was just a dream.Or wasn't he?





	Like A Fading Dream

_Present_

Pepper watched as Tony packed. Well, it wasn't really packing seeing as all he was doing was stuffing as much tech as he could in his cargo pants.

Today was the day.

He was gonna save the world.

Tony slipped an extra arc reactor in his pocket. Then his hand felt the detachable arc reactor he had on his chest, a habit he's developed in the last five years.

He hadn't had any chance to use it in the last five years, the number of villains to fight having decreased along with the population. But he will where he's going.

Pepper knew she'll see her husband again. But she didn't know if it will still be _this_ version of him.

If his trip was successful, the world she's in will cease to exist, along with all of them because Tony will have managed to change the present.

Tony caught her watching him and abandoned his packing for a moment to sit beside her on their bed. He took her hand and gave it a squeeze.

"It's just another mission." Like that was going to make Pepper feel better. 

"Except you're going to go back 11 years in the past, changing the future, and erasing more than a decade of our life together."

Tony frowned, his brown eyes boring into hers. He pressed his hand to his wife's cheek.

"We'll still have it. I promise you that. There isn't a multiverse where we aren't together, Pepper."

Pepper snorted. He had no way of knowing that without Dr. Strange around to tell him so, which made the whole statement total BS.

Tony moved his hands up to her hair, his fingers carding through it and cradling her head.

Pepper sighed before pulling his hand down.

"Tony, you're erasing our son."

And therein lay the crux of her anxiety.

She and Tony had had four wonderful years with Morgan, he was the only good thing to have happened after the Snap.

Being a mother was transformative and purposeful, and to lose that--all those memories of long nights where she fed him, tried to soothe him, his first word, the time he scraped his knee riding a bike, his first robot--to have it all erased... She couldn't bear it.

A tear slipped down her cheek and Tony took her face in his hands.

"Pepper, I have every reason to believe he'll still be born. A different version but it'll still be him. And we'll love him all the same. That won't change."

"But he won't be the same. And I don't know if I want a different Morgan." It was stupid, but motherhood changed her.

"Even if it's the cost we pay to give him a better world to live in?"

It was selfish of her, to hold on to this broken world just so she could keep her son.

Pepper lowered her head in defeat and shook it.

Tony kissed her forehead and said softly, "I love you and Morgan, every version of you two. That's not going to change in whatever timeline."

But it still felt like he was going to die, like they all were. And Pepper wasnt going to even remember it all because they technically weren't going to exist.

Finally, Pepper looked at him, pulled him against her by his shirt, and kissed him.

It was slow and numbing, her lips refusing to move out of trepidation. In the end, she managed a trembling kiss which Tony welcomed. He didn't rush her, didn't push; he let her lead and he responded equally, soft and tender, raw and pure.

He tasted her tears that trickled in the kiss and Pepper pulled back to wipe her cheeks.

"This isn't goodbye, Pep." Tony said.

That was a lie.

"Yes, it is," she said, hugging her husband tightly. "I love you."

"I love you too."

...

"Hey, bud."

Morgan looked up from his Lego and grinned at his parents who were standing by the doorway of his room, watching him.

Waving his dad over, he said, "Daddy! Look at my tower!"

Tony walked in, crouched down in front of him, and inspected his work. The kid had a lot of stuff around him.

There was what looked a lot like a robot dinosaur, a circular something, a toy car, and the tower.

"Wow!" Tony remarked. He glanced at Pepper. "This can go on the new building plans, right, Mom?"

Pepper, still leaning against the door, nodded, her smile not quite reaching her eyes.

"Reminds me a lot of Stark Tower, honey."

Morgan's eyes brightened at the comparison.  
"Can we work in the workshop, dad?"

Tony frowned and said, "I'm sorry, buddy. But I'm going on a business trip, remember?"

They had broken the news to Morgan yesterday and proceeded to spend the entire day with him to make up for Tony's absence.

They spent it in the workshop. It was Morgan's first time to tinker. It was a big deal.

Morgan had excitedly looked at all of Tony's tools and named all of them one by one. He knew them by heart. He had toy versions of them in his room.

Tony let Morgan build whatever he wanted (Pepper drew a line at an egg shooting gun...and a laser gun... And all ideas weapons related), and ended up with a car that could transform into a robot. A real Transformer. Sans weapons, of course.

Morgan nodded, remembering. "Where you going? Can I come?"

The four year-old loved to travel, oftentimes accompanying his parents on work trips. He didn't know that was only because his parents refused to leave him at home with a babysitter in case something bad happened.

Tony shook his head and Morgan pouted.  
"It's going to be a long trip and I need you here with Mom so she's not alone."

"Because Mommy's going to be sad cause she's alone?"

"Yeah."

Morgan thought about this for a minute, eyes darting from Tony to Pepper and then back to Tony.

"Can you bring home candy?"

Tony chuckled. "Sure thing. Those sour ones again?"

"Yeaaah."

"You're gonna rot your teeth out. "

"I'll just brush my teeth."

Smartass.

"You better. Come on, give me a hug before I leave."

Tony heard the door creak and knew Pepper must have left, unable to stand the sight of them saying goodbye.

Tony held his son for the last time and fought back tears.

Just because he comforted Pepper a while ago didn't mean he didn't feel the same way as her, have the same worries she did.

"I love you so much. I'll always love you."

"I love you too, daddy. I'll miss you."

"I'm going to miss you too, Morgan. Be mom's little helper while I'm away?"

"Daaaad," Morgan moaned. "I'm big now."

"Then be Mom's big helper. Alright?"

"Okay."

Tony ruffled his hair.

"I love you."

...

_11 years in the past_

"How do we know if it worked?" asked Clint, looking at the destruction the battle of New York left in its wake.

"Trust me, it worked," said Tony, behind him.

"How do you know?"

"Because I'm fading."

Everyone turned to look at Tony, his entire body looking transparent and whispy, like it could be swept away from the wind.

Steve took a step forward but he noticed that he was fading too.

"Tony--"

"It's fine, Cap. It's working. I'll see you all on the other side."

Fading, Tony realized, was not so bad.

...

_Present_

"Mommy!"

Pepper ran up the stairs, two steps at a time.  
With Tony in the past trying to undo Thanos' work, she's been living on edge every single day, wondering if today was the day she lost her entire world.

She reached Morgan's room. "What? What is it?"

Pepper blanched.

Morgan, looking like a literal ghost, pale and see-through, grinned at her.

"I've got powers, Mom! Look!" He pushed his hand through a wall and Pepper watched it go through.

She stifled a gasp and forced herself not to appear distressed.

"I'm like a ghost! Can you take a video and send to daddy?"

She smiled nervously and slowly knelt in front of him.

"You're not scared," she realized. Of course he wasn't. This was Tony's son. He found weird things cool. His favorite holiday was Halloween and that wasn't even a holiday. He once dragged Tony into a Horror Booth at a carnival and slept like a baby afterwards, while Tony refused to pee alone.

Pepper choked back an anguished cry. Not her baby. Not him.

Morgan's eyes widened. "Mommy, you're ghosting too!"

Pepper expected as much but she didn't bother looking at her hands. There was no stopping things now.

She doubted that the rest of the world was finding this development as cool as Morgan did.

"Yeah," she nodded. "We're ghosting. I bet daddy is too."

Morgan was looking less and less real now, almost disappearing into the air.

"Morgan? Just look at Mommy okay? Look at Mommy."

"Mommy?" Pepper could only see his piercing blue eyes and the ghost of his smile now. "I'm gonna be a superhero when I grow up."

Pepper didn't know what was worse, watching her son die or never knowing he had existed.

...

_The new present_

"Last night, I dreamt we had a kid. So real. We named him after your eccentric uncle. What's his name?"

"Right."

"Morgan! Morgan."

 


End file.
